The use of various forms of computing equipment to automate or otherwise perform a number of tasks has become widespread. With the proliferation of processor-based platforms, such as personal computers (PCs), tablet devices, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and servers, capable of executing instruction sets for providing specialized or generalized functionality, such as word processing, accounting, document generation and management, printing, data communication, and image capture, generation, and management, the use of such computing equipment has become nearly ubiquitous in both business as well as personal settings. Various forms of computing equipment can be further connected by networks, e.g., Internet or local area network (LAN), to perform even more complex functions, such as automating tasks involving electronic-commerce (e-commerce) transactions, to perform automated tasks via a network in the cloud, or others.
In today's world of ecommerce and widespread marketing via the Internet, an ever increasing amount of goods are ordered or purchased by buyers from ecommerce market places or other ecommerce outlets (e.g., Amazon.com, Inc., Best Buy Co., Inc., Overstock.com, Inc., etc.), as well as smaller enterprises and individuals (e.g., small businesses, sole proprietorships, and even individuals who market goods via their own web sites or through communal marketing web sites, such as eBay.com, Amazon's Marketplace, etc.). Orders for goods purchased through such ecommerce outlets are typically shipped from the seller or other providers to buyers using one or more shipping service providers (e.g., United States Postal Service (USPS), United Parcel Service (UPS), Federal Express (FedEx), etc.).
Various forms of computing equipment and related systems can be used to automate tasks associated with the shipment of ordered items, including: (1) the management of orders, (2) managing the picking and packing of items for order fulfillment, (3) generation of invoices, packing slips, manifests, shipping labels, and postage or other prepaid shipping indicia, and (4) tracking of shipment of items through a shipping service provider. Various forms of computing equipment and related systems can also be used to allow sellers and/or shippers, either individuals and/or businesses (collectively users), to generate and print postage indicia using personal computers and similar processor-based systems, to satisfy the postage needs for the shipment of an order. For example, the Stamps.com Inc. postage system allows for generating postage indicia data and printing of postage indicia using personal computers, and the SHIPSTATION web based shipping management system, provided by Auctane LLC (a wholly owned subsidiary of Stamps.com Inc.) provides automation of tasks associated with the shipment of ordered items.
Items can be shipped using various shipping service program options. For example, a user can select a shipping service program such as USPS Priority Mail, USPS Express Mail, USPS Parcel Select, UPS Brown Label, UPS Red Label, UPS Blue Label, etc. for use in shipping an item in connection with an order. Also, a user can designate pick up of an item from a warehouse or store in connection with an order. Alternatively, a shipping service program can be designated using more general shipping quality of service (QoS) levels (e.g., standard, expedited, 3-5 day, 2 day, overnight, etc.) which do not denote a particular shipping service provider to be used. The shipping service program options can be specified by the buyer, or may be determined by a seller and/or a market place where the order was made.
A seller (whether the aforementioned large enterprise or a smaller enterprise), shipper, or an agent of the seller tasked with shipping the ordered items often selects appropriate shipping media or package types (e.g., envelopes, padded envelopes, flats, boxes, etc.), that will (1) properly contain ordered items to be shipped, and (2) meet requirements/limitations of the selected shipping service program. Such selections may be further complicated by the need to select a shipping QoS level. A further challenge is that some shipping service providers utilize fixed rate media (e.g., particular sizes/configurations of envelopes, flats, and/or boxes for which shipping rates are fixed for the media regardless of the weight of the item and/or distance between a shipment origination location and a shipment delivery destination) with respect to certain shipping service programs, whereby the seller or the agent may further be tasked with selection of shipping service program options as well as selection of appropriate fixed rate media for shipping the ordered items.
In addition to the aforementioned complexities arising from selection of various shipping media and shipping service programs (or shipping QoS levels), many sellers or shippers are confronted with additional complexities associated with the availability of a plurality of warehouses from which any particular order may be shipped. For example, a large enterprise may have regional warehouses or other fulfillment sites distributed geographically throughout a country or even the world from which ordered items may be shipped. Thus, in addition to selecting the appropriate shipping service program and shipping media, some sellers must further select an appropriate location from which the shipment of the ordered items will originate (e.g., enter the mail stream).
Due to the large number of options available with respect to shipping any particular item of an order, such as may result from the combination of a number of shipping media being suitable for containing the item, as well as a number of shipping service programs being suitable for transporting the item within any designated QoS levels, sellers and/or their agents may spend a lot of time determining the details of shipping the order.